WYD site limits gay debate

A discussion about homosexuality on the World Youth Day internet site xt3 was shut down at the weekend.

Many of the posts in the Ask A Priest discussions were deleted by the administrators, where Father John Flynn had directed same-sex attracted Catholics to the support group Courage to help them live a life of chastity. Homosexuality was one of the most popular discussions taking place on the site.

While we can always seek God’s forgiveness, the Pope makes it clear that we cannot invoke mercy and love and then just use it as an excuse to sin, Flynn advised the WYD attendees.

He added the church viewed sexual orientation and acts are two distinct things, and would not be subject to the fads of the day.

But the debate showed Catholic youth were not unanimous in support of the Pope’s position on homosexuality as intrinsically disordered.

I will more than likely get hammered for saying it, but I sometimes think that the church’s view contributes to the pain that these people feel about their sexuality, which is real and undeniable, WYD attendee Christian wrote.

The strongest response was directed at Catholics who admitted their own homosexual feelings.
How can you believe in God and then go about committing disgusting sex acts with other men? If you were living back in the Old Testament days you’d be stoned to death, one post, which was removed but is still accessible, stated.

Others responded by suggesting homosexuality could be cured with faith, and HIV was part of God’s plan.

New threads with these claims were created almost as quickly as the existing ones were being locked, but are only accessible to xt3 members.

Melbourne writer John Heard said hundreds like him, both same-sex attracted and happily Catholic, would be attending World Youth Day.

We all struggle [conforming to Christ]. However, at World Youth Day, same-sex attracted Catholics can strive to overcome that pride, and come to celebrate the faith with the rest of the world, Heard wrote. “Acceptance members are invited too!

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8 Comments

@ Phillip First off, whoever says that they are cured from homosexuality are fooling themselves, and I believe that they are also fooling God. God created man in his own image and likeness, and he did this individually. He decided to create homosexuals the way they are, saw they they are good, and created them in a special way and specific way; He created them and others in their own way for them to show His power image and to give praise to Him in their own unique way. Whether or not homosexual acts are wrong in terms of dogma or not, is not the issue. The issue is that people are using these beliefs as weapons and doing more harm than good, and are going against what God has created and willed them to be.

We can read in the Bible about homosexual behaviour, its consequences, and that it can be cured by God: -œDo not deceive yourselves: no fornicators, idolaters, or adulterers, no sodomites … will inherit the Kingdom. And such were some of you; but you have been washed, consecrated, justified, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1Cor 6:9-11)

The Catholic Church is not inventing anything, it witnesses what the Lord wants himself, and this is demanding and challenging.

As a response to Dan about censorship. The group you created must have had something in it that was offensive. There is a growing group on the site specifically for gay Catholics. http://www.xt3.com/group/view.php?id=472

Until I am proven otherwise, without a shadow of a doubt, that these words were spoken and written by God and/or Jesus I will continue to live my life the way that I see fit, relying on my intuition, instinct and my own moral compass. Principles such as these dogmatically thrust upon us MUST be questioned. I find it hard to see the difference between the behaviour of a dictator, to the preachings of a religious denomination. Yet people will happily follow like sheep, in faith, to teachings from thousands of years ago (subject to Chinese Whispers mind you) but wont listen to a community of people who are at their very core, made the way they are GAY! It’s not a choice! We’re bound to this orientation whether God’s involved or not. I’m baptised Roman Catholic…a load of good that was huh? And I wont be told that I’m wrong.

Whatever your sexual orientation, as catholic you have a very clear guidance in the Revelation as given by Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the catholic church: all sexual activity outside of marriage is morally not acceptable because as we can read in Theology of the Body by JPII, sexual activity must be free, total, faithful, and fruitful – something that can be only achieved in the sacrament of matrimony.